French TV series
One excellent place to find French TV series is SensCritique, which has an enormous database of user reviews and "best of" lists, along with links to online retailers. Note that depending on where you live, you may need a region-free DVD player to play French or Canadian DVDs. See also French movies and series with accurate subtitles. TV series originally in French La Prophécie d'Avignon If you like Dan Brown like mysteries including history and thriller, this shouldn't be a dissappointment for you. Uses standard and common colloquial French. 8 episodes On n'est pas que des cobayes Similar to the American series MythBusters, ''this French series features three hosts who execute scientific experiments to answer various questions, myths and challenges. It currently airs every Tuesday on the Canadian TV5 channel. Many episodes can also be found on YouTube. Engrenages (Spiral) This police drama captures the work and life of the employees of the juridical system. The main protagonists are: a police captain, two lieutenants, a judge, a prosecutor and a lawyer. So far four seasons were produced (40 episodes) and a fifth one is to be shown in 2014. This is a fairly challenging series, due to the complicated plots, the large number of characters and the fast, colloquial speech. The subtitles do not match the dialog all that closely. It is, however, critically aclaimed and widely exported. Les Revenants The show is based on a 2004 movie bearing the same title. It is a drama series with a supernatural twist. Set in a small mountain town somewhere in France, it is beautifully shot with great music composed by the Scottish band Mogwai. So far one season was aired (8 episodes). The second season is scheduled for 2014. 30 vies 30 vies is a québécois TV show set in a high school. Each week or two the show follows a new character who is having some sort of difficulty with school, family, or relationships. This series could be hard to follow because of all the characters and the québécois slang. It is available for viewers in Canada on the site tou.tv. Ulysse 31 A children's TV series from the 80s consisting (26 episodes, each about 23 minutes in length). This is a science-fiction version of Ulysses, set aboard a cool space ship. It's a joint French/Japanese production. If you grew up in the 80s, and you want to relive the French childhood you never had, look for either this or ''Captaine Flam. No subs, medium difficulty, with a few difficult-to-understand characters. Profilage An original French detective series (with comedial bits), whose main protagonist is a psychologue-criminologue who is quite an unusual person and her team. The language used is of medium difficulty, surely much less difficult than Engrenages. TV series with good quality French dubbing L'Avatar, le dernier maître de l'air This Nicolodeon children's series was a critical and commercial success in both the US and France. The three seasons and 61 episodes tell a complete story of a 12-year-old boy who is responsable for saving his world from a 100-year war. The French dub is natural and idiomatic, and Avatar can be watched with pleasure by adults. No subs, unfortunately, but it's relatively easy to understand. Buffy contre les Vampires Buffy has an excellent French dub. The French subtitles, however, are almost completely useless. Fortunately, there is an almost-complete fan transcript of the series. Le trône de fer The French version of Game of Thrones. This is a solid translation and a professional dub. The speech is quite clear, so it might be suitable for a first or second series at the intermediate level, especially if you've read the first book. The French subtitles are consistently abridged, but they're based on the actual dialog, so they're not useless. (Keep in mind, this is a HBO series, so there's a lot of blood, sex and nudity.) This series is extremely popular in France at the time of writing. Caprica A spinoff of one of the most well known sci-fi Battlestar Galactica, taking place half century before the BSG. Uses standard and common colloquial French. 18 episodes Grimm A fantasy/detective tv series. Nick, a detective at the Portland police, finds out he is a Grimm, one of the people who can see the creatures that inspired the fairy tales among us and fight them when needed. Standard and common colloquial French. So far two seasons, 22 episodes each. At least the first one has already been dubbed to French. Bonus: bits of German and even Russian to be heard. Eureka Another american sci-fi. However, it offers a wider focus on everyday language compared to some more clasical scifi and includes more humour as well. Used French is the common standard and usual colloquial language combination. There are 5 seasons Lost Girl-Baiser Fatal An american sci-fi. After vampires, werewolves, aliens, mutants and zombies, there are the faes! The main character is a succubus who doesn't know her origins and becomes kind of a private detective. Despite being one of the many "supernatural" series, it is entertaining and those who don't hate the genre in general may find it really fun. Language used is of similar level as in Eureka. Three seasons have been dubbed so far. Bonus: Bits of Russian to be heard.